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Memphis (14-10 overall, 5-6 American Athletic Conference) has dropped five of its last seven games overall and its defense has seemingly disappeared. The Tigers travel to Tulane on Saturday in another AAC matchup.

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February 10, 2016 - University of Houston's Bertrand Nkali (left) uses the back of University of Memphis defender Dedric Lawson (middle) to grab a rebound as Shaq Goodwin (right) looks on during second half action in Houston, Texas.(Photo: Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

HOUSTON -- Freshman forward Dedric Lawson says the goal hasn't changed for the University of Memphis, even after a 98-90 road loss Wednesday at Houston dropped the Tigers to 5-7 since Jan. 2.

"Our seniors want to get to the NCAA tournament. I want to get to the NCAA tournament as a freshman. And we're all just working hard to make that happen," Lawson said.

At this point, though, that seems highly unlikely with Memphis (14-10, 5-6 American Athletic Conference) having dropped five of its last seven games overall and its defense having seemingly disappeared.

Houston senior Devonta Pollard, who scored a career-high 34 points Wednesday, and junior guard Damyean Dotson (21 points) became the seventh and eighth players to score 20-plus points against Memphis in its last 10 games.

The Tigers, who travel to Tulane (9-16, 2-10) on Saturday in New Orleans, have given up 75 or more points in six of their last seven games.

In the meantime, they've dropped from 24th nationally in defensive efficiency in late January to 69th today after allowing Houston to score a whopping 58 second-half points on 69.2-percent shooting.

If Memphis plans to be anything other than one and done in next month's AAC tournament in Orlando, which it will have to win to make the NCAA tournament, the Tigers had better get their defense fixed over their next three games against Tulane, UCF and South Florida.

Some other takeaways/observations from Wednesday's game:

-- Senior guard Ricky Tarrant Jr. scored just three points and played a season-low 13 minutes before fouling out Wednesday. He scored just two points in the Tigers' 63-59 win over Cincinnati on Saturday. Tarrant has started every game for the Tigers this season, but he hasn't been very effective of late. He had zero assists Wednesday as Memphis also tried junior Sam Craft, senior Kedren Johnson and freshman Jeremiah Martin at point guard. The three combined for six points, zero assists and three turnovers. Senior wing Trahson Burrell led the Tigers with four assists.

-- Lawson had his 10th double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) of the season, the third-most by a Memphis freshman. Only Keith Lee (17 double-doubles in 1981-82) and Lorenzen Wright (15 in 1994-95) had more.